Litter box issues, which I twice wrote about earlier this month, struck a big, unhappy chord with many readers. Lots of folks, it turns out, are coping with their own particular feline-special-delivery elimination problems. And they posted questions or e-mailed me, their confusion/frustration palpable.

The Teacher's Pet: Dogs and Kids Learning Together program is working. All of the rescued dogs plucked from shelters and trained through the program have been adopted into new homes; most of the emotionally impaired kids who have rehabilitated them have new leases on life, too.

Too many locked-in-cars dogs die horrible deaths every summer, their brains, their organs literally heated into mush. So maybe this will help: a graphic description of exactly what occurs when a dog is closed in a hot car.

Have a cat that goes LOUD in the night? Veterinarian Karen Sueda, who solves cat problems on Animal Planet's Housecat Housecall, says nocturnal yowls are a fairly common complaint of owners. It occurs most often with cats that have not been spayed or neutered, she says.

Imagine this: A person is terminally ill. Has weeks or months to live. Must tend to end-of-life matters, and, with depleted energy and, probably, resources, try to make the most of her remaining time. For this person, a great comfort, perhaps the greatest comfort, is her pet, who provides round-the-clock love during even the worst moments.